warped drill press table - how bad is too bad

[mark mcfarlane]

I just purchased/received an inexpensive Woodpeckers drill press table from Grizzly. http://www.grizzly.com/products/Drill-Press-Table/T26932

The table is MDF (or something similar) covered in a laminate. Using the included aluminum fence as a straight edge, the table is warped down from the edges toward the center the thickness of 9 sheets of paper (all I have handy to measure). The warp is easily visible without measurement. The table was shipped vertically and it is really humid in Houston this week.

Will the table settle if I keep it on a flat granite countertop for a while, or should I request a new one?

My expectation always was that eventually I need to build something more substantial, like a torsion box top, but I wanted something quick and easy to use with a new G7943 bench top drill press due to arrive today.

Cheers,

[Prashun Patel]

Can you bolt a 1x on the bottom to stiffen it back to straight?
I only resort to my drill press when I need perfect holes. On wider pieces you may not be able to trust the quill angle reliably. Shimming and measuring and hoping would become tedious for me.

[mark mcfarlane]

Can you bolt a 1x on the bottom to stiffen it back to straight?
I only resort to my drill press when I need perfect holes. On wider pieces you may not be able to trust the quill angle reliably. Shimming and measuring and hoping would become tedious for me.

I could easily do that at the front of the table where it hangs off the metal press table, but on the backside (fence side) of the table I'd need something that went under the press table. All doable if I attached the braces from the top of the table,... Good idea, thanks Prashun.

[John Blazy]

To answer your question of how bad is too bad - that depends on if you want holes to be at perfect right angles. Any warp will angle your stock to the quill. No MDF or melamine ever really returns to flat once warped. Instead of replacing, just glue a sheet of new melamine or plywood to the face of the warped table with PL Polyurethane to fill the center concave depression. Make the new overlay table overhang by at least 2" so you can clamp to it. While doing so, check for square against the quill by inserting a long straight rod into the chuck and shim the new table into perfect perpendicular. The glue will hold the shims into position.

[mark mcfarlane]

To answer your question of how bad is too bad - that depends on if you want holes to be at perfect right angles. Any warp will angle your stock to the quill. No MDF or melamine ever really returns to flat once warped. Instead of replacing, just glue a sheet of new melamine or plywood to the face of the warped table with PL Polyurethane to fill the center concave depression. Make the new overlay table overhang by at least 2" so you can clamp to it. While doing so, check for square against the quill by inserting a long straight rod into the chuck and shim the new table into perfect perpendicular. The glue will hold the shims into position.

John, If I understand your suggestion correctly, the downside to gluing a new surface on top of the existing table is I loose all the milling done to the current warped table (zero clearance insert with underneath adjustments for leveling, dado's for the t-tracks/fence hold down, pre-drilled locations for the clamps to hold against the existing metal press table,... Also, I'd loose the nice slippery dimpled laminate surface on the Woodpecker's table.

It would be just as easy, or easier, to just make a new top.

The current table is 'low' at the drill but location, i.e. concave from left to right.

I could more easily add a new slab beneath the warped one, but that may not work as well since I'd have to use this to make the warped table flat rather than just shimming in a new top surface,....

[mark mcfarlane]

.... No MDF or melamine ever really returns to flat once warped. ...

Sounds like I should give Grizzly a chance to replace the top, but then I am wondering if the new top will eventually warp. A single ~ 1" slab of MDF might just be a bad design choice for this application.

[Cary Falk]

Mark,
Although you can probably clamp it to the table and get the warp out, I would send it back and make your own. By the time you return it and wait for a replacement you could have made one. I bought all incra and woodpecker hardware to build the one you see below for about the same price you spent on yours. I made my table 1.5" thick and put cleats on the backside to clamp it to the table.

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q297/caryincamas/DSC_0637.jpg
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q297/caryincamas/DSC_0638.jpg
Cary

[Sean Tracey]

If I understand correctly, the table would be highest in the middle where the drill is and low at the edges. If so, then this is the best way for the table to be out of flat because when you mount the table to the drill press table, it should tend to pull it flat.

It depends on how you mount it and also on the drill press table itself.

I have one of those Woodpecker's tables I bought about a decade ago and it is mounted on a Delta drill press that has a large rectangular table. I live on the Gulf Coast. The table has stayed flat. I align it with the spindle using a dial indicator. I am able to do precision work with wood and metal although an $800 drill press is not a $20k vertical milling machine.

You could clean your drill press table and put the Woodpecker's table on it where you intend to mount it and push down in the middle with clamps and/or cauls then see if it goes flat. This way you wont have drilled holes in the table. If the table is really out of flat, send it back. If I recall correctly Woodpecker's puts a laminate backer of some sort on the bottom, so that helps them stay relatively stable. But it is definitely possible that a given table may warp too much and have to be sent back.

[pat warner]

Is the core cast iron?
Scrap this add-on and add some jig plate aluminum. (http://patwarner.com/images/drill_check_list.jpg)

[john bateman]

I just purchased/received an inexpensive Woodpeckers drill press table from Grizzly. http://www.grizzly.com/products/Drill-Press-Table/T26932

The table is MDF (or something similar) covered in a laminate. Using the included aluminum fence as a straight edge, the table is warped down from the edges toward the center the thickness of 9 sheets of paper (all I have handy to measure). The warp is easily visible without measurement. The table was shipped vertically and it is really humid in Houston this week.

Will the table settle if I keep it on a flat granite countertop for a while, or should I request a new one?

My expectation always was that eventually I need to build something more substantial, like a torsion box top, but I wanted something quick and easy to use with a new G7943 bench top drill press due to arrive today.

Cheers,

Is the bottom of the table covered in laminate? If not, that may be the reason it is warped and you could glue on some laminate to the bottom. In time that would even out the bow.

[Myk Rian]

Send it back. Get a new one, or make your own.
$120? You can make a bang-up table for that.

[mark mcfarlane]

If I understand correctly, the table would be highest in the middle where the drill is and low at the edges. ,...

No, when mounted on the drill press it is low in the middle and high on the ends. I have it currently sitting upside down on a granite countertop with a weight in the center but I'm not hopeful it will flatten.

Making one is problematic for now, I am bootstrapping a new shop and all I have is hand power tools including a track saw. Next week I'll have a workbench. Stationary tools won't come until the new shop is built, maybe 6 months out.

Although I could make a drill press table with my current tools, I have more important projects to get to, like building out my garage with 2 walls of cabinets to store all of my family 'crap' so none of it ends up in the shop. I need to complete the cabinets before Christmas.

[mark mcfarlane]

Is the bottom of the table covered in laminate? If not, that may be the reason it is warped and you could glue on some laminate to the bottom. In time that would even out the bow.

Both top and bottom are laminated and edges are banded. The only exposed MDF is the routed channels for the T-tracks and the routed cavity for the zero clearance insert.

[John Lankers]

To be honest, I'd rather have no table than one that isn't flat. Unless you can clamp the Grizzly top to the cast iron table on the DP and straighten it out this way I don't see how you could ever be happy with it. Imagine you need to drill a hole through the end of a dowel.

[mark mcfarlane]

Thanks everyone. I'll call Grizzly today for an exchange and post back the results after we reach a conclusion.

[John Blazy]

Is there room under the table (cast iron base, I assume) to mount a same size panel of plywood, in which you would screw through the warped top and into, thus pulling down the upward canted warped edges? I am picturing a steel or CI table that is way smaller than your warped MDF top, which would function as the spacer.

[mark mcfarlane]

Is there room under the table (cast iron base, I assume) to mount a same size panel of plywood, in which you would screw through the warped top and into, thus pulling down the upward canted warped edges? I am picturing a steel or CI table that is way smaller than your warped MDF top, which would function as the spacer.

Thanks John, that's an interesting thought. Are you suggesting a sandwich with the MDF table, CU table in the dole, then plywood underneath? I'd probably have to countersink bolts into the top of the MDF table, just screwing into the MDF from below probably won't have very good holding strength to pull the table flat.

[John Blazy]

Yep, thats what I meant. Countersink through top, screw through bottom 3/4 ply. Then just torque the screws into perfect flat. Simple # 8 or 10 drywall screws should do it. make sure screws are longer than the total distance by 1/2" or more, and when they poke through, hit them at the sides with a hammer, and the hardened steel will break off flush ( or you can help them with nicks from a cuttoff wheel of an angle grinder).

[mark mcfarlane]

Following up on this thread. I left the MDF drill press table on a counter top with a couple full gallons on paint on top for about 6 weeks. Most of the 'sag' is gone. I bought a Veritas 36" aluminum straight edge and a set of feeler gauges. The top is now mostly flat, with the worst location being off by about 0.4mm.

Good enough for woodworking?, or should I contact Grizzly and ask for a replacement. http://www.grizzly.com/products/Dril...s-Table/T26932 (http://www.grizzly.com/products/Drill-Press-Table/T26932)

Someday I may rebuild the table, but the tracks, clamps, and fence are probably worth most of the price of this table.

I'm doubting a replacement would be any better.